Friday, June 10, 2005

Science and Religion

Even today, many believe that science and religion are against each other. They argue science is based on facts and religion is based on faith and you cannot mix fact and faith...blah…blah…blah.

I feel that those people are either ignorant on this matter or lack the intuition to see the Truth.

I believe that science and religion are not against each other.

This is my take on this subject.

1. Anyone who believes that science and religion are at odds...don't know much about what they are talking. It's just a perception that they are at odds. It's not the truth.

2. Science and Religion are two different paths to the same destination. TRUTH. Religion is like..."there is a source, it's also the destination. You came from source...and these are the different ways to go back to the source (or destination)". Whereas science is like..."what is the source...is there a source...what is the destination...is there a destination...how did we come from source...how we can go to destination".

3. Religion inspires science.

4. Science is at its infancy. It makes mistakes. It corrects them. It makes mistakes again. It corrects them again. This goes on.

5. DNA studies (science) say that all humans descended from an African ancestor who lived only 60,000 years ago. Is that African ancestor Adam & Eve?(Religion). This is a classic example of my Point (2). Science and Religion tries to take humanity to same place, in different ways.

Is it science or religion that has made our lives better?

It depends.

If you are talking about the physical body, or anything to do with materialistic world, then YES, science has made our lives better.

But if you are talking about the spiritual, or anything to do with spiritualistic world, then religion has made our lives better.

Has science done anything for spirituality?So far not much. Most of them indirect. In future this might change. The closer the two paths (science and religion) are to the source, the more they will converge.

In my opinion, we should have an open mind and not say religion is crap or science is crap.

A person should fall under only one of the 3 categories.

1. Spiritual,

2. Scientific,

3. One who believes that both are different paths to the same.

One of my friends is so pro-science. He says all things said in religion are more or less crap, as there is no proof. He asks has anyone seen God. Yet, he goes to temple & prays to God. When asked, he says not to mix faith and fact.

Holy Crap.

What in the world is that supposed to mean???

Jesus said "One can serve only one master".

I said earlier that science hasn’t done much for spirituality and that even whatever it has done has been indirect.

But looks like this is going to change soon. Or is it?

Scientology

I have been hearing this word for quite few months now.Thanks to Tom Cruise, who has converted to Scientology and trying to talk to his super awesome fiancée Katie Holmes to adopt Scientology.

What is this Scientology? I decided to check it out myself.

After spending about half a day in their website I understood the following:

1. Scientology is a system of beliefs, teachings and rituals, originally established as a secular philosophy in 1952 by author L. Ron Hubbard, then re-characterized by him in 1953 as an "applied religious philosophy".

2. Scientology is defined as a controversial belief system developed by L. Ron Hubbard, based on a person being an immortal spiritual being whose survival depends on him/herself and his/her attainment of brotherhood with others and the universe .

3. Scientology literally means ‘knowing how to know’ .

4. It sounds more abstract initially and more like a religion for the elite few.

For more, I think it would be better for you to get it straight from the horse's mouth.

It took some time for me to comprehend what they were trying to say. But I think that’s because Iam neither intelligent nor one among the elites.

Honestly I think it is old wine in new bottle.Scientology is nothing but the knowledge from our age old Hindu philosophies, Vedic literatures, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavada Purana, Bhavishya Purana and all such works, presented in a modern way to a modern world, applying scientific principles wherever possible.

It looks promising.But I know almost nothing about it. Have to research and understand more about it.

When I Google for Scientology I see a lot of Anti-Scientology websites too.

In my opinion, if Scientology is trying to bridge the gap between science and religion, and trying to say that both are 2 different ways to the same Truth, and if science can be applied to religious philosophies and if it makes the world a better place to live, then that’s the way to go.That will be cool.

3 comments:

Anyone who believes that science and religion are at odds...don't know much about what they are talking. It's just a perception that they are at odds. It's not the truth.

Content free statement.

Science and Religion are two different paths to the same destination. TRUTH. Religion is like..."there is a source, it's also the destination. You came from source...and these are the different ways to go back to the source (or destination)". Whereas science is like..."what is the source...is there a source...what is the destination...is there a destination...how did we come from source...how we can go to destination".

What source and destination are you talking about?

Religion inspires science.

Empty statement. Doesn't further any point.

Science is at its infancy. It makes mistakes. It corrects them. It makes mistakes again. It corrects them again. This goes on.

Are you implying religion is not in its infancy and is mature and found answers for everything?

DNA studies (science) say that all humans descended from an African ancestor who lived only 60,000 years ago. Is that African ancestor Adam & Eve?(Religion). This is a classic example of my Point (2). Science and Religion tries to take humanity to same place, in different ways.

Oh. So looks like you have solved the classic debate between creationists and evolutionists. I think this is a fleeting statement and oversimplifying things.

Science tries to answer the "HOW" questions. For example, physics tries to answer HOW the physical universe works.Religion tries to answer the "WHY" questions. For example, "WHY are we here?".As for as I can see, science doesn't even try to answer the WHYs and religion doesn't bother with the HOWs.In my opinion, one can live happy fruitful life without bothering about the WHYs, but its pretty hard to survive without knowing the HOWs.

I am a Scientologist. I grew up in a Christian family, but found that Christianity was not helping me on my spiritual journey.

Once I began getting Scientology counseling (auditing), and studying Scientology scriptures, I found it simply validated my own basic spiritual beliefs.

When I read Hindu teachings, I find that they completely agree with my beliefs.

L. Ron Hubbard himself credited early religions with the development of the spiritual beliefs of Scientology, notably Hinduism.

A major portion of Scientology processing, is ridding the mind of negative past influences. Hubbard provided exact processes which could be used to do this. They work 100% of the time, when applied correctly.

It is important to do this, as these negative past influences can cause one to have irrational fears, compulsions, urges. Ridding the mind of these leaves us more ourselves, and less the effect of our past.

When we die (in Scientology, we calling it "dropping the body"), we take our mind with us. So these past influences can be very, very old - but they continue to affect us from lifetime to lifetime.

I understand in Hinduism, the goal is to rid the mind of negative thoughts. Same with Scientology, only in Scientology there are exact processes to do this.

As a matter of fact, one cannot go very far in one's progress in Scientology, without addressing past lives. We recall them and we rid ourselves of the negative attachments to them.

One thing Hubbard discovered early on, is that these negative thoughts actually have electrical charge connected to them. This helped him to develop the processes that would help rid people of the negative thoughts.

The process of getting rid of the impact of these negative thoughts involve using a device called the e-meter - the electropsychometer. It simply measures the electrical charge connected to different mental image pictures. The mental image pictures are what we carry around from lifetime to lifetime, and what causes things like phobias, compulsions, that sort of thing.

There is so much that I think Hinduism and Scientology have in common, that I can't state it all here. I am a Scientologist, but through my study of Scientology, I feel I have become a Hindu as well. I believe I HAVE been Hindu, and have been on this particular search for many lifetimes. Finding Scientology is now allowing me to achieve my specific religious goals - spiritual freedom.